To say that Germany does not love Silvio Berlusconi would be an understatement. But not even we thought European "democracy" would stoop so low as to tell Italians not to bring Bunga back or else. As Reuters reports[11], the German president of the European Parliament, once compared to a Nazi concentration camp guard by former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, warned Italians on Thursday not to back the scandal-ridden media tycoon at the ballot box. Martin Schulz is the latest in a line of German politicians to express fears about a possible Berlusconi comeback largely due to worries he will halt Rome's reform drive that has helped to lift investor confidence in the euro zone. "Silvio Berlusconi has already sent Italy into a tailspin with irresponsible behavior in government and personal escapades," Schulz was quoted as saying in German daily Bild.

Ironically, as today's PMI data confirm, it is somewhat hypocritical of Germany to accuse Italy of anything since in the Zero-Sum mercantilist union, it is only Germany, now that France has careened off the cliff, that benefits from everyone else's misfortune. The irony is that Germany should be rooting for Silvio - after all they need that EURUSD some 1000 pips lower to boost German exports, and when all hell breaks loose with Italian bond spread, Germany will simply inject another €500 billion in current account liquidity via Target2 (even if it means crushing PIMCO and their long Italy bond position). To pretend that anything in Europe at this moment is about solidarity is hypocrisy of the nth degree.

Anyway, back to the Europe where any trace of a majority popular opinion must be promptly crushed as in any true totalitarian despotism.

In quotes not printed in the paper but sent in an advance copy of the report, Schulz went on to urge Italians to vote for continued reforms.

"Much is at stake in the forthcoming elections, including making sure that the confidence built up by (Prime Minister) Mario Monti is not lost. I am very confident that Italian voters will make the right choice for their country."

There is bad blood between Berlusconi and Schulz, a Social Democrat.

In 2003, the then Italian prime minister said he would like to suggest Schulz, who had criticized his policies, for the role of a Kapo in a film on Nazi concentration camps. A Kapo was a camp inmate given privileges for supervising prison work gangs.

Berlusconi later brushed off the comment, saying he was being ironic and had referred to a television comedy series.

Merkel herself, who has supported Monti's austerity drive and has a difficult relationship with Berlusconi, has kept mum on who she would like to see lead the euro zone's third biggest economy .

Monti risked embarrassing her this week by saying Merkel did not want the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) to win, following Berlusconi's remark that Monti would join forces with the PD after the election "with Merkel's blessing".

Something tells us a German telling Italians to vote for a pro-Goldman Sachs endorsed regime in this case embodied in a vote again one person, may have just sealed the outcome of this weekend's Italian election. And not in a way that will make Goldman Sachs, or ze Germans, happy.